I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, write me on Facebook or just email at paultassi(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also almost finished with my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy.

You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You

Now that the SOPA and PIPA fights have died down, and Hollywood prepares their next salvo against internet freedom with ACTA and PCIP, it’s worth pausing to consider how the war on piracy could actually be won.

It can’t, is the short answer, and one these companies do not want to hear as they put their fingers in their ears and start yelling. As technology continues to evolve, the battle between pirates and copyright holders is going to escalate, and pirates are always, always going to be one step ahead. To be clear, this is in no way meant to be a “pro-piracy” piece, it is merely attempting to show the inescapable realities of piracy that media companies refuse to acknowledge.

What’s clear is that legislation is not the answer. Piracy is already illegal in the US, and most places around the world, yet it persists underground, but more often in plain sight. Short of passing a law that allows the actual blacklisting of websites like China and Iran, there is no legislative solution. That’s what SOPA and PIPA were attempting to do, but it so obviously trampled on the First Amendment, it was laughed out of existence as the entire internet protested it. The only other thing you could get the internet to agree on was if they tried to institute a ban on cat pictures.

So, what to do? Go the other direction. Realize piracy is a service problem. Right now, from the browser window in which I’m writing this article, it is possible to download and start watching a movie for free in a few swift clicks.

(This is all purely theoretical of course)

1. Move mouse to click on Pirate Bay bookmark

2. Type in “The Hangover 2″ (awful movie, but a new release for the sake of the example)

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The owners of the copyright have a moral right to restrict the creation however they wish. Your economic explanation may explain the effects behavior, but the consumer doesn’t have a right to the lowest price of intellectual property.

Great article, maybe, just maybe someone with the power to change things will read it.

I’ll go even further to say that many consumers pay a lot of money for pirated content, just to the wrong people. From exceeding bandwidth caps to premium subscriptions on torrent sites to MegaUpload ($117M through their PayPal account!?!?!), if the big companies realized how much they’re losing not in the ridiculous potential lost sales but in the distribution channel itself, they might change their thinking.

If a consumer pays $100/month for cable, $50/month for Internet+$50/month in overage fees, $10/month for the limited content in Netflix and maybe another $20/month in “other” (Amazon, iTunes, etc), that’s $230/month for access to “media”. Hello…studios…here’s $3000/year/person that we would like to give you for unlimited access to your content but you don’t seem to want our money so we’ll go get it elsewhere. Really???

Hollywood’s support of PIPA and SOPA are a symptom of the Big Business trend of creating security for their profit model. Much simpler to spend millions lobbying members of Congress than to approach an evolving market with creative solutions, as you so aptly state:

“The millions of dollars they spent lobbying trying to get bills like SOPA and PIPA passed could have gone into R&D for new distribution arms like the one above.”

Either way, the Tax Code allows a write-off whether Hollywood spends their cash on R & D or paying Lobbyists.

The studios should consider developing a player similar to an I Pod where the customer could download the media into their device and own it. Copy protection could be written into the code and customers could create an account where they could back up their purchases online.

I suspect the reason they haven’t yet done so is the pesky issue of royalty payments which can be complex at best. Hollywood Accounting methods are highly creative and new distribution channels would present yet another obstacle in securing profits.

The Entertainment Industry (nor any other business) has a right to make a profit; they have a right to try and make a profit. “Treat your customers with respect , and they’ll do the same to you. And that is how you fight piracy.”

Absolutely agree! Now, one way to legitimately share movies would be a ‘gift’ system where after purchasing a movie you could ‘gift’ a limited number of friends a voucher for 20-50% off a rental or purchase of the movie along with a customized message – the gain in positive word of moth advertising (and one instance of this is worth 100 barely-noticed commercials) would more than offset the discount. Such a system would, in fact, advertise the service and make it an even more attractive alternative to rentals!

Another important factor would be portability – for this kind of service, you’ll want it on everything from your embedded computer on your ‘smart TV’ to your desktop and phone. Certainly not a difficult investment with the kind of budget the media industries have.

Piracy will never truly be eliminated – there will always be people who will pirate products and people who will spend time defeating the most elaborate of digital rights management system. Actually, I don’t think there’s a single DRM system at the moment that has not been broken through in some form, for games or movies.

The absence of any physical manufacturing cost will more than make up for the costs of a content delivery network to ensure good-speed downloads for everybody.

This article is pretty much just like mine but their’s has pictures and more up to date examples. (mine was done mid last year http://www.scribd.com/doc/76156718/Piracy-Guide-to-How-It-Can-Work-for-All . and we are both right stating that the industries simply are not willing to accept change, and the only way they will accept it is if its only on their terms and pricing … which is exactly why piracy is here. if the companies took a step back and realized anti piracy groups dont help them and they are actually fed lies. and took a step forward and understood the users within piracy p2p community are yelling to help and show the way forward.

The problem with this article is that it’s pro-piracy. It’s like the writer is encouraging people to download movies for free and not buy the dvd. One of my friends is currently in jail for torrenting hundreds of films. If Six Flags had a secret side entrance where people could get in for free, would it hurt their business? Think long and hard about that one. You already know the answer. If you want to see a movie, BUY it.

It’s not about being free, it’s about being accessible. The reason a lot of pirates are foreign is most likely because films and music produced by US studios is unavailable. Many people would like to pay at least some money for films/music that they really enjoy, but there is no way for us to do that over here.

Your friend is an unlucky one in the millions of pirates who still download films, and by the looks of it this culture is not going to change any time soon.